I know. I'm a beginner and the most obvious answer is that I just need to work on my endurance and practice. But I can swim breaststroke (my best stroke) seemingly forever without feeling the exhaustion I do after sprinting a 50 free or even slowly swimming a 100 free. I swim on my own (not with a club), but did join a group workout on Tuesday. The instructor was pleased with how my freestyle looked, so I don't think I am doing anything horribly wrong. I do think I have a weak flutter kick. All in all I do think I am going to be a sprinter, but I would still like to be able to do a slow freestyle during a workout and go farther than 100 yards. Tips?
So, I have happy news to report! After considering all of the great advice from you all, as well as doing other online research, I went to the pool today and swam 1000 yard freestyle without needing to stop or getting winded. I went immediately into 500 back and then 500 ***. I was floored that I was able to do that. I think the most significant changes I made were: #1 breathing - I breathed every second stroke throughout (vs. the every fourth stroke I had been doing previously), #2 my kick - I started kicking from the hips instead of knees and relaxed my kick. I read somewhere that only about 20% of the power comes from the kick, so I realized I was putting most of my energy into my kick and it was exhausting me. #3 core - I focused on tightening my core to maintain balance and help keep my feet up so that I didn't have to kick so hard. Sure, I was maintaining a snail's pace, as it took me an hour to complete the 2000 yards, but I'm OK with that. I think I have a sprinter's mentality all of the time and slowing way down is going to be helpful for me at this point when I'm still concentrating so much on technique and endurance.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this success with you. I had a horrible swim yesterday, so having such a great one today, all the while accomplishing what I did just feels great.
THANK YOU to everyone for being supportive and so helpful.
So, I have happy news to report! After considering all of the great advice from you all, as well as doing other online research, I went to the pool today and swam 1000 yard freestyle without needing to stop or getting winded. I went immediately into 500 back and then 500 ***. I was floored that I was able to do that. I think the most significant changes I made were: #1 breathing - I breathed every second stroke throughout (vs. the every fourth stroke I had been doing previously), #2 my kick - I started kicking from the hips instead of knees and relaxed my kick. I read somewhere that only about 20% of the power comes from the kick, so I realized I was putting most of my energy into my kick and it was exhausting me. #3 core - I focused on tightening my core to maintain balance and help keep my feet up so that I didn't have to kick so hard. Sure, I was maintaining a snail's pace, as it took me an hour to complete the 2000 yards, but I'm OK with that. I think I have a sprinter's mentality all of the time and slowing way down is going to be helpful for me at this point when I'm still concentrating so much on technique and endurance.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this success with you. I had a horrible swim yesterday, so having such a great one today, all the while accomplishing what I did just feels great.
THANK YOU to everyone for being supportive and so helpful.
